Identification

Title

Management, yield, soil and vegetation data for oil palm smallholder farms in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, 2019

Abstract

This dataset details information collected from smallholder oil palm farms in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Including: management practices, oil palm fruit yield, understorey vegetation, and soil chemical properties (SOC, total N, total P and available P). We collected data between August to November 2019 from 40 smallholdings (defined as farms < 50 ha) across six governance areas in Sabah. We used responses from face-to-face questionnaires to collect information about their management practices, including Best Management Practices (BMPs), and reported Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) yields. We also carried out field surveys on these farms to quantify vegetation cover and soil chemical properties. All smallholder farms had mature fruiting trees i.e. > 8 years since planting. The project received ethical approval from the Biology Ethics Committee, University of York (Ref. SGA201906), and permission from the Sabah Biodiversity Council (Ref. JKM/MBS.1000-2/2 JLD.8), Danum Valley Management Committee (Ref. YS/DVMC/2019/27), and South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (project number 18033) for permission to conduct our research in Sabah, Malaysia. This work was funded by the NERC iCASE studentship (NE/R007624/1) and Proforest. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/38487932-b32a-4b15-9fda-ea812c463466

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/data/38487932-b32a-4b15-9fda-ea812c463466

description: Download a copy of this data

function: download

https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/sd/38487932-b32a-4b15-9fda-ea812c463466.zip

description: Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset

function: information

Unique resource identifier

code

https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/38487932-b32a-4b15-9fda-ea812c463466

codeSpace

doi:

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

environment

Keywords

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

112.939

East bounding longitude

120.762

North bounding latitude

9.102

South bounding latitude

2.372

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2019-08-01

End position

2019-11-30

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2022-09-06

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Field surveys and questionnaires were conducted from August to November 2019, in collaboration with local field researchers and organisations in Sabah. Permission was received from the Sabah Biodiversity council to conduct our research in Sabah. Smallholder farmers were randomly selected for inclusion within the study, with assistance from a local non-for-profit organisation. We received verbal and written consent from all farmers prior to conducting any field surveys or questionnaires. Out of the 40 smallholder farms in our study, 35 farmers had RSPO certification (Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil) and 5 farmers were non-certified (farmers from the Tampenau village) at the time of sampling. Yield measurements were reported by the farmer during face-to-face questionnaires (estimated fresh fruit bunch yield of the farm per harvest or per month) and not directly measured values. Hence, they might be subjected to some degree of error and might not be an exact representation of the farm’s yield. All vegetation survey information and soil samples were collected within a 0.28-hectare circular plot using a nested plot design, one plot per farm. Soil analyses were performed by Sabah Forestry centre in March 2020.

Conformity

Conformity report

specification

title

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2010-12-08

degree

explanation

Data format

name of format

Comma-separated values (CSV)

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

If you reuse this data, you should cite: Gutierrez Al-Khudhairy, S.Y., Howells, T.R., Bin Sailim, A., McClean, C.J., Senior, M.J.M., Benedick, S., Hill, J.K., Azmi, R. (2022). Management, yield, soil and vegetation data for oil palm smallholder farms in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, 2019. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/38487932-b32a-4b15-9fda-ea812c463466

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

email address

sgak500@york.ac.uk

web address

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3841-5864

description: ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers.

function: information